Is It A Canaletto Or A Bellotto? Don’t Ask An Art Historian …
According to Brian Allen, a leading expert in the field, young art historians are finding it difficult to spot subtle yet crucial differences between the works of master painters with similar styles as connoisseurship is slowly dying out in academic art history. The former director of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and trustee of the National Portrait Gallery suggests that universities are no longer training historians to differentiate between the styles of different masters effectively. Rather, they now focus on the social history of art. Allen claims that many younger historians find it challenging to make attributional statements if faced with a questionable picture, leading to a concerning lack of knowledge and pedantic skills in the field that results in forgeries being missed. The result of this trend is a diminished number of doctoral theses being produced in pre-20th-century art, as students are opting for what he calls "easier" subject areas, such as contemporary art, which requires less in-depth knowledge.
The change to art history education started in the early 1980s when the traditional focus on scrutinising paintings began to be replaced with a social history of the subject. This shift in curricular emphasis took a stranglehold on the way history of art is taught today. The decline in connoisseurship has long concerned Allen. Twenty-five years ago, he warned that soon there would be no connoisseurs in the history of British art. Now, he believes this has almost come true, and there are hardly any connoisseurs left. Allen is worried that this education trend could lead to obscure subject areas eventually and that the decline of education extends beyond the universities to public collections. Tate, one of the UK’s prominent art institutions, has, in his opinion, lost all "real experts" on British art. Allen will deliver his thoughts on this topic at the conference on Art, Law, and Crises of Connoisseurship, organized by Art Watch UK, the London School of Economics, and the Center for Art Law (US).
Canaletto’s artwork portraying the Ducal Palace in Venice is depicted on the left. Meanwhile, his nephew and assistant Bernardo Bellotto rendered a comparable perspective of a Venetian view, which is exhibited on the right.
